NY Band ACES Describes the Making of Their First Music Video

Based in Brooklyn, the ACES duo has created a visual representation of the synth based sound they call patient pop.

ACES sparkling synth­based sound are carefully maintained by Russ Flynn and Alexandra Stewart. Based in Brooklyn, the duo has combined Flynn’s poised, slow­burn production with Stewart’s tender and tempered voice. This release marks the first of a collection of songs completed this spring. Today they premiere their first music video. Read on to find out about the 3 part music shorts.

Tribeca: Hey, ACES. Alexandra, you co-directed, starred, and edited these music videos. What made you decide to take on so many hats?

Alexandra: I guess many hats is sort of my thing. It’s a necessity in the industry and in this case, it was a total pleasure. A few years ago I started editing video. Mostly for fashion and culture pieces but also for my own personal projects. Editing has this rhythm to it that makes sense to me. I remember when I started writing ACES with Russ, I had printed out about a hundred photographs and pinned them up around my little workspace. The direction for these videos started here. I’d be writing music and visualizing it as scenes. Bringing these videos to life was a natural next step.

Tribeca: What was your concept for Part I?

Alexandra: Part I is a dream. “What Do You Think They’ll Say About Me?” was always something I envisioned as a conversation someone was having with herself. I asked my friend and actress Rachel Zeiger-Haag to play my double for it. We went to this amazing raw space in Greenpoint and turned it into our pink soaked dreamscape.

WATCH PART 1 NOW

Tribeca: What is "patient pop" and how does this music genre influence your video?

Alexandra: Ha! “Patient pop primed for sunset drives and slow motion romance” was something our friend came up with. It couldn’t be more true for this video. We hold off until the very last lyric to reveal the story that’s about to unfold. Suddenly, I awake from my dream, the phone is ringing and I answer. Having our music so influenced by pop gives us endless possibilities for video treatments. We can pull from almost anything but right now, we have this “cars and phones” theme across our videos and Instagram. It’s my very own “all you need is a girl and gun” formula.

Tribeca: What can we expect to see in the follow up, Part II and Part III?

Alexandra: Cars and phones! And we wouldn’t be ACES without playing cards though our name actually comes from my initials. The follow ups are far less abstract than PART I. We don’t have an overarching story but we do have themes throughout. For Part II, we dive right into the phone call. It’s still as dreamy as ever with half of it being shot in Honolulu. Lots of sun soaked scenes driving around the island. By Part III you’re really starting to look at things through rose coloured glasses. I had some of my best friends join us for the shoot. I was lucky Russ let me dive deep into girl world for that one.